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A Metrorail rider is hailed as a hero. (Published Friday, Aug 27, 2010)

Updated at 11:35 AM EST on Friday, Aug 27, 2010

It was like a scene straight out of the movies. A man falls on to the tracks at a subway station. A train is quickly approaching. People are trying to get the train to stop. And suddenly a bystander jumps into action, drops onto the tracks, grabs the man and helps him to safety before the train pulls in.

But for Dimas Pinzon this was no movie. It was happening right before his eyes at the Virginia Square Metro station. And Pinzon became the hero.

Pinzon, a 57-year-old retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, told ARL now he was on his way to Union Station during a lunch break to pick up Amtrak tickets. He missed his train at Virginia Square Metro and was waiting for the next train when he heard people yelling, “Get off the tracks!”

On the opposite platform a man had a medical emergency and fell on the tracks. In the distance the sounds of an oncoming train. The train was slowing so Pinzon jumped into action, dropping down to the rails and crossing two charged third rails to make it to the man.

“You just don’t think, you just do, and so I jumped onto the tracks,” Pinzon told News4’s John Schriffen.

Pinzon picked up the man and put his arms up on the platform where other passengers pulled him to safety. With only a couple of bruised knuckles, Pinzon says he’s lucky and shouldn’t be called a hero.

“You know the guy need help,” Pinzon said. “You just go out and do it, you know. People in this world need help so you got to do what you got to do.”